Flesh + Blood (1985)

Strong and Moving!

Instant Favorite.

Fresh and Exciting

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I little background here before anything: I watched this movie due to the writer of the manga "Berserk" claiming that it inspired him, and i love Berserk, so by no means i hate a piece of media just because it has a rape scene on it, Berserk has plenty of it.I came into this movie expecting something similar, but in a realistic setting, boy i was in for a surprise.This movie is absolute garbage.Here is the main problem with it: It is painted as a realistic, dark and overly gritty representation of high middle ages "camp follower" culture but instead it quickly devolves into a myriad of cliches, situations that just flat out don't make any logical sense with a good dose of uncomfortable abuse porn.Boy, here do i begin with the plot wholes of these last 2 hours of my life i just wasted ?How Agnes goes from a spoiled brat that tell her maid to have sex with a guard just to see how sex looks like to a back-stabbing whore that knows to manipulate the leader of her captors with her body in the span of 15 minutes ?Why a bunch of greedy mercenaries decide to gang rape Agnes, the daughter of an aristocrat, instead of making even more money ?How said group of mercenaries manage to elude an whole cavalry battalion on their get way in 3 wagons FULL WITH THE LOOT OF AN ENTIRE CITY AND A FREAKING STATUE IN IT ?How 10 people manage to capture a castle by themselves ?Why Agnes already enjoys the company of the people that were abusing her not 10 minutes ago by the time they captured the castle ?Why is Steven even willing to negotiate with these people ?Why Steven builds such a ridiculous and overly complicated siege machine instead of telling his man to hack at the simple wooden gate with axes ?Why is this machine even in a movie that is supposed to be dark and serious ? That entire scene was downright comical.Why is Steve assaulting a castle defended by 10 people with 5 people ? Couldn't we have cut one of the 20 sex scenes on this stupid movie and payed some more extras here director ?Why 3 soldiers and 2 drunk whores are capable of "finishing off" the remaning soldiers ?Why Steven's army is so terrible at anything it does ?After Martin is blamed for their situation with the plague and throw down a well, why is Agnes simply accepted by the others ? Why aren't they angry at her as well ?After all that happened, why on earth Steven trusts Martin and saved him from the well ?LIGHTENING DOES NOT BREAK IRON CHAINS !!!Why was Steven circling his chain around the tree for anyway ? Did he thought "Hey, i am going to place his chain around this tree in chase a lightening hit it, that will free me !" ?How is it possible that the badly wounded Steven is the first to enter the castle and fight both the cardinal and Martin ? What the hell is the entire cavalry from the previous scene doing ? Watching the scene unfold from the courtyard ?Why he manufactures a rocket powered spear with one functioning hand, a cut leg and not to mention, the lightening ?Why everything this character does has to be "sciency" is some way ? The dude is a walking cliche.Why Martin tries to kill Agnes instead of using her as hostage ?Why Agnes even ends up having any loyalty to Martin at all or even to Steven for that matter, how comes this women fell in love with two man, one of which after a 10 minute conversation beside two rotting corpses and the other the rapist that took her virginity ?I fell like i could write a book on how bad this movie is, i am really have no explanation how anyone think this is a good movie other than, well, they like torture porn, because this entire movie is a freaking torture section on both its characters and its audience.For a movie about mercenaries, i couldn't really point to a single good fighting scene and that was another major letdown, almost all violence in the movie is done by someone that is armed towards a completely helpless person.if you are thinking of watching this, take it from me, just go watch a porn movie, half of them have plots that make more logical sense than this.Better sex scenes too.

"Flesh and blood" is realistic portrayal of life in middle ages compared to other knight-type movies. It correctly portrays the common folks and noblemen. The only difference is the effects of the plague , but I believe it was done intentionally – from people's points of view in 1501. Don't expect romantic stuff like in other Hollywood movies about that time. Noble king, brave knight , decent citizens , saint princess ? You won't find anything like that in here.That's also the biggest problem with the movie . None of the characters is really likable . Everyone of them is evil one way or another . You could say that they all are anti-heroes . It makes an interesting watch, but it was impossible for me to identify with any of the sides of conflict. The young prince Steven (Tom Burlinson) is probably the closest person to be hero, while Martin (Rutger Hauer) seems to be the villain. Princess Agnes (Jennifer Jason Leigh) isn't a typical love interest , because she is an opportunist . Verhoeven portrays humanity in very negative light . I can agree with him that religion was often used as a tool of propaganda and that kings and aristocrats were rarely as noble as they should be. It doesn't mean that they weren't people who REALLY believed in God and who tried to be decent.The movie is full of violence and shocking images - lovers kissing beneath the hanging corpses is the most symbolic one. It was either done for shock value or maybe the director wants us not to judge people from the past by today standards. By the way – Verhoeven doesn't necessary handle well the action scenes.By the end of movie there is no message really . "Flesh and blood" drowns in a sea of nihilism . The whole movie doesn't really have any resolution. Almost everything in the end is just like in the beginning of the movie. Maybe that's the message from Verhoeven's point of view ? That everyone there (and maybe now) is bastard who cares only about himself? Interesting movie to watch , but doesn't really stays with you since it's empty at heart and doesn't really go anywhere. I give it 6/10.

It's 1501 Western Europe. Martin (Rutger Hauer) leads a group of veteran mercenaries. Arnolfini promises them 24 hours of looting but he recants on his promise. Arnolfini's son Steven (Tom Burlinson) is engaged to Agnes (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Their caravan is attacked by Martin and Agnes is taken. Steven struggles to rescue her.Paul Verhoeven gives us lots of sex and violence in this medieval drama. It has since become his signature move. It's over the top nature was only restrained by his budget. Of course, Verhoeven gets people to walk around naked especially Jennifer. This could be categorized as cheese. Mind you, it's extremely high class expensive cheese. The humor can be very broad. Some of the acting is very big. All of it very memorable. The best part may be the sexual relationships that goes on in this movie. Who seduces who is maybe the most compelling question. The love triangle looks different depending on which side you're coming from. It's both compelling and a fun guilty pleasure.

Plot: A medieval saga of a band of mercenaries who are pledged to exact revenge on an Italian noble lord who doesn't live up to his promise.Flesh+Blood is set in early 1500s when Black Death has just begun spreading its claws in Italy. There is no law & order left in the country side -- murder, rape, loot are common occurrence.Flesh+Blood (1985) An Italian noble Arnolfini (Fernando Hilbeck) hires a band of mercenaries and farmers-turned-soldier to win back his city lost to a coup, while away. Arnofilni promises the mercenaries a day's plunder in the city but once victorious he makes his commander-in-chief Hawkwood (Jack Thompson) drive them out of the city without food, water, or weapons.Mercenaries have no shelter and are devastated. Their leader Martin (Rutger Hauer)--a brave, carefree and eccentric man soon loses his infant son too. While digging the grave for his dead son, Martin unearths a wooden statue of Saint Martin of Tours – a saint with a sword. The mercenaries' priest proclaims it as a sign from God and Martin takes up the sword to lead them.They soon kidnap Agnes (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the virgin betrothed of the Arnofilni's son Steven (Tom Burlinson). To avoid gang-rape, Agnes initially fakes love for Martin and uses her—recently come to fore—sexuality to manipulate him but soon falls for him.Arnofilni was fatally wounded by mercenaries and Hawkwood has retired. Steven—highly intellectual but not a soldier—enforces Hawkwood to come out of retirement. Together they siege the castle mercenaries are using as a hideout. During the siege Hawkwood is infected by the bubonic plague--the Black Death and Steven has been captured by mercenaries. Hawkwood uses an unorthodox medical technique, mentioned by Steven, to cure himself. Once fit, he decides to bring in more troops but flings pieces of a diseased dog into the castle before leaving.Steven flings one piece to water well and Agnes sees him doing so. She decides to keep it to herself as she still loves Steven. At breakfast most of the mercenaries are soon infected by poisoned water, though when Martin attempts to drink; Agnes slaps the cup away from his hands.Now mercenaries are dying and fleeing the castle. Soon Hawkwood and Arnolfini, who has recovered from his wound, return with an army to enrage the castle. Agnes and Steven leave the castle and some of the surviving mercenaries pledge fealty to Arnofilni.Martin is assumed dead, Agnes and Steven are hugging each other; at the same time Agnes notices Martin slipping out of the castle with some plunder in his sack, which she keeps mum about.Acting is not a strong point of the movie, it is rather mediocre. But it is very much possible director wanted it to be so, as there is much focus on skin and gore.The strong points of the movie are its blackish humor and young Jennifer Jason Leigh – who manages to look pretty, and at the same time hell-bent sexy! Take her out and movie is kaput. There is plenty of blood-gore and full frontal nudity which blends in well with the scenario and is done artistically, well, more like need of the hour! A must watch if you enjoy a middle age saga.7.0/10